Muhammad Ali (1967) vs Larry Holmes (1978) - who wins?

Many seem to have the opinion that Holmes' vaunted left jab would be able to nullify Ali's advantage in speed and quickness. Futch would not have made a difference here for Holmes. Holmes fights nothing like Ken Norton did, and anyway, we are talking about the 25 year old Ali here, not the early 70's version who was aging, had laid off for three and a half years, and was slightly damaged goods after that savage encounter with Smoking Joe Frazier in 1971.

Ali also had an ATG jab and although not as hard as Holmes' jab it was quicker.

Bottom line - Ali is the more gifted athlete, both have plenty of heart and toughness, Holmes hits a little harder, but speed is deciding factor.

Ali UD or dare I say even a possible late TKO.

 

Ali would win by unanimous decision over Holmes, due to his speed and reflexes

 

Holmes wouldn't be able to deal with ali's movement. If you check out the 7th round of their "fight", you can see holmes was becoming fustrated as a much faded and slower ali danced around and flicked out the jab. If this fustrated holmes then i could only imagine what would happen if ali was at the height of his abilities.

Combine this with the fact that ali could move for 15 rounds and still be fresh, along with his faster hands and superior combination punching ability and you have a comfortable ud win. As great as holmes jab was, ali was just too resourceful to let any one thing defeat him.

 

I've noticed that.

For brief moments, Ali got on his toes and Holmes suddenly looked very ordinary -a level or even two below.

You can just envision Ali at his peak with the swifter, sharper jab and superior harmony and fluidness handling Holmes quite well, thank you.

 

Good point about the seventh round of their real fight. I still feel that even a well conditioned and focused Ali of 1972-74 could have squeezed past a peak Holmes over the distance. Ali of '67 takes it clearly.

 

I was just going to post this. Futch will actually help, he's that great, but his impact on the earlier model Ali will not be as effective on the latter version. Ali wins a decision here.

 

Ali, but I do believe that he would have some degree of difficulty with Holmes.

 

I don't think any heavy in history wouldn't.